Six firefighters protecting homes were briefly trapped by flames and in serious danger before they took shelter in a safe structure, the San Bernardino County Fire Department said in a statement.
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In central California, similar conditions led the wildfire near Lake Nacimiento, about 180 miles northwest of Los Angeles, to explode from 2 to almost 7 square miles on Sunday, said Cal Fire spokesman Bennet Milloy.
Overnight, firefighters built strong containment lines near Wrightwood, which allowed residents of that ski resort town to repopulate the area on Saturday, he said.
Transit authorities on Thursday reopened Interstate 15, the primary traffic route between greater Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nevada, after it was closed for two days by the fast-moving blaze.
“You could look down Highway 2 and see where the fire was burning, and that’s a little too uneasy for me”, he said.
“Structures are known to have been damaged or destroyed but can not now be assessed due to the extreme fire behavior and growth”, the U.S. Forest Service reports on InciWeb.
The Clayton Fire that began August 13 and burned hundreds of structures in Lake County – including 189 homes – is now 75 percent contained at 3,929 acres. Fire officials are saying it is 26% contained.
At the height of the fire east of Los Angeles, some 82,000 people were under evacuation orders. Fire officials say that some residents will be literally returning to nothing once the evacuations have been totally lifted.
Long-awaited damage assessments were expected to be released Friday afternoon, he said. A report issued last week concluded that faulty wiring in a hot tub ignited the fire.
The Southern California fire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains.
The blaze quickly surged Thursday to about 500 acres and prompted the evacuation of a public campground and a camp for boys.
Damin Pashilk is charged with starting the blaze along with more than a dozen other counts of arson and one of attempted arson in connection with fires dating back to July 2015.
Weather conditions and the dryness have made the fire unpredictable. Still, gusty winds, high temperatures and low humidity persist and could create the same challenges that have haunted crews since the fire broke out Tuesday.
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Seen in a long exposure nighttime photograph, a burned van rests in a lot while a wildfire glows on the horizon in Phelan, Calif., early Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016 2016. Tragically, the Habitat for Humanity office was working to raise money to help rebuild homes destroyed by a devastating wildfire that killed four people and destroyed more than 1,300 homes almost a year ago.
